Mixed Feelings
by free the sky's Clouds
Summary: bad things keep happening to Cloud, but it gets better, especially when a certain someone comes back from the dead. CloudxTifa
1. Chapter 1

Chapter I

Chapter I

A Trap?

Cloud Strife was riding Fenrir to the address of a very well paid delivery. When he arrived at the rundown grey house in a very decrepit street, he hopped off Fenrir. He could smell way more than he wanted to _believe me_. He'd been in this neighbourhood like what, two minutes? And already he could feel the filth all around him, like a greasy aura of slime. He shuddered inwardly and approached the black, peeling-paint door and smelled rotting wood and was that fish? "Hello?" Cloud called out anxiously. The eerie silence chilled him to the bone. As an afterthought, he opened Fenrir's sword compartment and grabbed his faithful Buster Sword. Just in case.

Cloud knocked on the door and ended up with paint-dust on his black, leather gloves. Then, at the top of his lungs he yelled "Strife Delivery Service" at the busted windows on the top floor. "No answer, that's strange." he muttered under his breath. He tried the door and it opened easily. He walked into the house and noticed the unpainted, unpapered walls, covered with dry moss and shiny, white slime (could it be fish-oil). Cloud also noticed the bare, wooden floor which was rotting, and live with termites. The stink of damp, decay, neglect, and rotting fish lay heavy on the air. Cloud went dizzy for a moment, overpowered by the various stenches, which, in his opinion, should never mix, under any circumstances. He quickly pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket (the silk kind) and tied it round his face, looking like a gangster.

Cloud began to search for anyone who could have placed the order (five-hundred gunblades of various models. There were Wind-Whistlers, Midnight Storms, Deathstrikes, Multi-blows, Omnikills, you name it, and it was in there somewhere). Cloud began his search in the 2nd room, an equally disgusting place, though less puketacular. He went out to Fenrir and unloaded the gunblades, wondering what was going on when all of a sudden a Sephiroth- worshiper dressed as Yazoo complete down to the last detail, including the long, platinum-blonde hair jumped out of the smashed, top-floor window on the left, picked up an Omnikill which is basically five gunblades in one and started firing at Cloud; who used his Mako-reflexes to dodge into the 2nd room without getting hit once (good thing too, as Omnikill gunblades have acid-coated bullets that start reacting when they hit the air. Melting the flesh they hit before exploding, so the gunblade isn't given away by the bullets it uses).

When the Yazoo impersonator stopped firing to reload, Cloud picked up Buster Sword and attacked, only to be blocked by the centre sword-part, causing the surrounding four gunblades of the Omnikill to vibrate ominously. That was when Cloud realised that he was only reloading the centre _the other parts could still fire!_ Well, you don't have to be a super-genius to work out what happened next: four acid-coated-time-bomb-bullets hit Cloud in a neat row along the chest area. He was lucky enough for them to be cut off from oxygen, so, they wouldn't explode, but they were still melting him from the inside-out. He half-ran half-crawled up the stairs and reached another semi-dilapidated room and activated the special transmitter that Vincent had given him for his 26th birthday. The Yazoo impersonator came up the stairs to find Cloud half dead and utterly exhausted on the floor. He started shooting and Cloud blocked the bullets with Buster Sword when 'Yazoo' (or Biggles the fish-monger (that explains a lot)) paused to reload all his gun-parts, Cloud split Buster Sword into the five mini-swords and threw them all at the Omnikill in small hopes of breaking it, only for them to be blocked by the sword-parts. This left Cloud defenceless against further assault. Senior Psycho-pants (guess who that is) started shooting again "slightly more luck again, please, Aeris" Cloud thought in a silent prayer, hoping against hope she could hear him. I don't know if she heard him or not but the rotting floor caved in beneath Cloud, covering him in heavy debris he was currently to weak to move. However, this made him harder to shoot at.

Biggles/Yazoo/SP-P moved closer to the hole and pointed the mega-gunblade at Cloud's half covered head when SMASH! Vincent Valentine came through the window, sending it from broken to non-existent and opened unrelenting fire from Death Penalty, leaving Long-named-one as a crumpled heap against the wall. Half of operation Cloud-not-in-the-clouds was done; Vincent soared through the hole in the floor and dug Cloud out of the rubble. "Thanks." Cloud murmured before collapsing, unconscious into his hero's arms. Quickly and carefully Vincent carried Cloud out of the now-collapsing building and to a car out-front where Tifa Lockhart was waiting. He put Cloud in the back seat, strapped him in and sat next to him "Drive." Vincent said in his monotone growl.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter II

Beds and Bandages

Cloud woke up in a hospital bed, heavily wrapped in bandages. The bed was completely white, except for the wooden bedposts. The bed was surrounded by those weird green screens that people put up while you get changed, but never seem to take down again later. He could smell some kind of horrible new medicine (and hoped it wasn't for him), but couldn't really see anything much because there were more bandages pushing his eyelids down. That's right, he was _completely_ covered in them and he wasn't sure whether or not he actually had clothes on underneath the bandages. With an effort, he opened his shockingly bright, violently blue, Mako infused eyes and looked around, seeing the screens for the first time, he immediately made a move to either push or pull them away (he wasn't sure which way they folded).

A.N. As you might expect, this hurt him, and if you didn't expect that then re-read chapter 1.

When I say pain, I mean absolutely excruciating pain, which Cloud felt in his back and arm. Then a very fussy nurse (called Nurse Fussbudget) pushed Cloud back against his pillows in a way that almost stopped him from breathing, spouted something about relaxing and poured scorching, fowl-tasting potion down his throat making Cloud flinch slightly, but not much because he's really tough. _Then _Tifa starts yelling at Cloud for nearly getting himself killed again, before he started crying gently and hugged round the neck fiercely, almost choking him in a similar way to the nurse.

After all this had happened, Doctor Weather came over, introduced himself and started giving orders. Vincent who had been quietly and patiently waiting in the shadows received the first one, probably because he had some medical proficiency (although how did the doctor know?). "Rub this ointment into his bandages twice a day; it's highly alkaline to counteract the acid in his wounds." Cloud managed (with difficulty) to open his mouth and objected to this by saying; "err, shouldn't I do that?" while he blushed, hidden behind his bandages. "No," the doctor replied. Then he revealed a large bottle of small grey pills which smelled curiously of alcohol and said in a slightly annoyed voice "just take these, before and after the ointment, three at a time, with plenty of water." Then he turned to Tifa and told her "change his bandages once a week" Tifa took the clean bandages and started giggling straight away, making Cloud blush a violent red although the only sign of this was his eyes turning slightly purple, but even this was hard to pick up on, as he had very dark eyes anyway. "Shouldn't I do that as well?" Cloud murmured. Now Doctor Weather (although Storm might be a more appropriate name for him) was getting pretty angry now (told ya). "No! Just the pills" he shouted, shoving them under Clouds nose, and then he went off in a huff growling something about 'doctor's orders'. "Would you like us to carry you to the car, Cloud?" Tifa suggested although she hadn't quite gotten over her giggle fit yet. "No, I'm alright thank you" said Cloud quietly, but when he tried to walk he fell over, so they ended up carrying him to the car anyway. "So Cloud, what do you think," Tifa inquired when they got to the car. "It's nice." Cloud replied "just don't park to high up!" it was sky blue and had fluffy white clouds painted on it. Once inside he noticed everything was either white or blue and the seats were so soft. It was a shame Cloud couldn't feel them through his bandages. Tifa drove them to her bar The Seventh Heaven and carried him into the home above it, then to the guest room. They put him on the nicer of two guest room beds and Tifa tucked him in and he went to sleep.

Thanks to the Mako and Jenova cells in his bloodstream, Cloud was fully healed in just three weeks. Over the three week healing period Cloud never got out of bed. Vincent woke him up so that he could take his pills before and after the ointment, and sometimes he woke up while Tifa was changing his bandages and then she would start giggling all over again. Sometimes he woke up when no one was there and drank some hi-potions and used Cure3 spells from his MASTERED Restore Materia and occasionally used his MASTERED Heal Materia to counter his sleepiness and the minor acidic poisons in his blood. Thanks to all these things and more, he was totally healed in three weeks and so was relieved when he could finally remove his bandages and put his clothes on again, but he was a bit wobbly from not walking in three weeks.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III

Chapter III

Waiting (In More Ways Than One)

Cloud was bored, and when I say bored I mean mind-numbingly, colossally bored, to the point where he thought he would die of boredom. No one had ordered a delivery because since before the 'incident' because everyone thought he was still half dead and the commercials hadn't started back up yet. This left Cloud with one, single job opportunity; part-time working in The Seventh Heaven, which will eventually prove to be counter-productive. Cloud was definitely not cut out to be a waiter; his employment is more of a death-sentence than anything else. He was constantly causing accidents; if he wasn't tripping over table legs, his shoes aren't tied and he's falling over anyway. The customers were constantly complaining about his shoddy service: the way he spilled drinks; the way their food ended up on the floor, or how he gave them the wrong order. And occasionally he set the tables on fire accidentally. Of course Cloud paid for all the damages, setting his salary into minus figures. Eventually he just snapped and started chasing the customers away with his sword, demolishing the tables in the process. Once he'd calmed down and some how avoided killing the regulars, everyone stopped complaining, but still grumbled and called him names behind his back. One even went as far as to (I'm not sure whether he was drunk or not) yell "you suck!" In his loudest voice and throw his food at the back of Cloud's neck, resulting in the crazy guy getting thrown out of the window by the other crazy guy called Cloud Strife. Poor Tifa's bank account! But Tifa still didn't fire him; just yell at him a lot. Not that it matters, Cloud quit anyway because _his_ bank account _was_ almost out of gil. Plus his hands were shredded from constantly picking up broken glass. "Oh, Cloud, not again." Tifa would say as he broke glasses and plates in his usual debacle to which his mumbled reply was usually "sorry, Tifa, I'm just not cut out for this." "I know, Cloud…I know" would come the response, and then he'd get in the way while she was trying to tidy up the sorry mess. Sometimes customers would throw things at him at such times, until he reminded them he had saved the world from Sephiroth five years previously.

Well, after Cloud quit he started another form of waiting. Waiting on the couch for the phone to ring, while he simultaneously watched TV with the sound turned right up because he was also listening to the stereo. Then he gave the TV subtitles because he'd turned the stereo right up as well. How could he hear the phone ringing with all that noise? Well that was the idea; he just couldn't be bothered anymore. So, three days in, Tifa _yelled at him through a mega phone at full blast_ after she'd already tried getting his attention and turned the TV and stereo off. "Ow, Tifa, I'm not deaf you know!" he said indignantly. "aren't you." came the heated response, which had Cloud reeling, then she continued: "for your information _mister_ Strife I've decided you're to be refined to your new bedroom until you get back on your feet. Don't worry, there's a phone in there along with all your jumbled up stuff which you'll have plenty of time to sort out into your untouched filing cabinet," "But, Tifa." "No, no, I insist." The fightress picked Cloud up by the ear, like you would a naughty boy and dragged him off upstairs locking his bedroom door behind him, or in front of him, depending on how you look at it, considering she was outside when she did it. Then there came a thunderous banging from inside the door. "Tifa, you let me out right this instant, do you hear me?!" Cloud took the smallest of the Buster Mini-Swords (they'd been retrieved from the wreckage) and used it to pick the lock, before half running, half hopping into the bathroom with his legs crossed and face dangerously red. When he came back out he went into one of crazy moods, which Tifa used to lock him back in his room from the inside, then climbed out of the window, using some string and a ninja trick that Yuffie Kisaragi had taught her to lock it behind her and hide the key inside Cloud's room before he calmed down, hen she landed gracefully on the ground, leaving Cloud to calm down and find the key to his room. No sooner had he found it than BOOM! His PHS (Personal Handheld communication System) rang and he started to wish he hadn't set his ringtone to 'explosion' because he jumped ten foot in the air. Cloud hastened to answer the urgently booming phone and winced with pain as he remembered his cut hands. "Strife Delivery Service: you name it we deliver it." He said quickly into the phone's receiver, waiting for an answer, apparently he would get one hell of a handsome profit for five hundred refrigerators, plus he had a coupon for 'any number of refrigerators for one hundred gil at crazy Bob's appliance depot', which is the rough equivalent of ten English pounds. Cloud went half mad looking for his key then he grabbed his coat, riding goggles and Fenrir's keys before speeding down the highway at around one hundred miles per hour, he used the new heli-glide feature that Reeve Tuesti had fitted to cross oceans and was at the newly reconstructed Mideel in no time at all. He bought the refrigerators and left Crazy Bob looking pretty angry and mumbling something about taking advantage of his generous offer. Cloud sped off again and, having received a whopping five million gil for successful delivery of the refrigerators to the new refrigerator salesman realised he had the future he had wanted since about ten years ago back in his hands.

He was ready to give Tifa a certain proposal and half of the cash when he got back to The Seventh Heaven that evening. He requested that he speak privately to Tifa and showed her the gold before saying something really quickly that sounded something like "Tifawillyoumarryme." But it was too fast to tell what he said, and then more slowly and with gritted teeth he requested "can you give me an answer now I'm hanging on the edge here" Tifa had just figured out what Cloud had said, then she answered by saying "I thought you'd never ask." This was close enough to a 'yes' for Cloud to slip the gleaming engagement ring on to her finger before collapsing into a crumpled heap on the floor.

A few minutes later, he woke up wet, confused and on the floor, wondering what had just happened, but knowing he was very happy about something, very happy indeed. Tifa was standing over him, holding a now-empty bucket of water. "wakey wakey, sleepy head." she said before they shared a very long, but very tender, loving kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, first of all I'm sorry to the people who have been reading this for my unannounced two-year hiatus. You'd think someone as laid back as me would have more time on his or her hands. I'll update more often now.

This one I need to improve from the original draft and also make longer than my previous chapters (I'm aiming for at least ten pages).

The reason for my hiatus is that I hadn't checked my hits, but did notice I hadn't got a review, so please review and then I can right more.

Reviews are love and happiness .

It has also come to my attention that I haven't used a disclaimer yet.

Disclaimer: No Tetsuya Nomura don't shoot me! AAAAAAARRRGHH! All characters, their names, The locations and the majority of items belong to the almighty Square Enix. So here it is, the much awaited return of Mixed Feelings!

Mixed Feelings

Chapter IV

Marital Mania

Day 1 As Cloud and Tifa's iminent (if not hasty) marriage loomed, everyone was going mental with preparations. Cid was making the cake, much to everyone's horror, (until they realised it was someone else's recipe) while Vincent helped Cloud find a suit, Yuffie (in absence of aeris (rest her soul)) was helping Tifa find a dress. As money was no object, it should have gone swimmingly, but would anyone let that happen? Doubtful. "Cloud, at least try it on" Vincent monotone moaned at Cloud for being so picky (93rd suit this store, and it's their eleventh store). "No rotten, fucking way am I wearing that!" Cloud swore loudly in disgust, making evryone stare at them. "Cloud, you're making a seen… again" Vincent snapped (if annoyed whispering can be called snapping). "It's hideous, and the shirt's _white, _I thought only the bride wore white at a wedding" "The men at the wedding _including the groom_ wear white dress shirts" Vincent reminded him. "and what'll you be wearing, hmm?" Cloud retorted. "_I _ shall be wearing my usual attire, as it is acceptable in any given situation" Just then, Denzel walked in. "A VAMPIRE! A FUCKING _VAMPIRE_ WALKS IN AND HE'LL SCARE THE GUESTS HALF TO DEATH !" "Cloud, shhh." "DON'T SHUSH ME, VINCENT _FUCKING _VALENTINE!" "Denzel just walked in, Cloud" "I DON'T CARE IF THE FUCKING WUTAIN EMBESSY WALKED IN… uh ooh, erm did you just say…" He turns to see Denzel standing in the doorway. "Oh, erm, Denzel, er exactly how much of that did you hear?" "Since you started swearing" came the answer. Meanwhile, in a different shop within yelling distance a similar event was unfolding… "I am NOT wearing that Yuffie" Tifa, who was fairly easy going was yelling at Yuffie, who had been trying to get Tifa to wear five year old pajamas made to look like bunnies. To the point, in fact whereupon Tifa didn't even want to get a dress anymore. But a convoluted window of opportunaty opened when Tifa heard Cloud screaming bloody murder at the top of his lungs. "Awww! Come on Tifa, just try it on" whined the Wutain Ninja-in-training. Elena walked in then, purely out of chance, to get a cup of coffee. Seeing this, Tifa quickly formulated a devious plan to escape. "Why don't you go help Denzel and Vincent find a suit for Cloud?" Tifa suggested "Okay, Tifa bye" came the response just as she ran out the door. Tifa waited for her to get out of hearing range and counted under her breath. "One…two…three…" By the time she reached "4" she heard Cloud groan loudly and Yuffie say "I heard you, Cloud and here I am, the Wutain Embassy!" Upon hearing this, Tifa called Elena over and found a dress with sufficient ease.Day 2

Miraculously Cloud got a suit by striking the deal that if he had to wear one, so did Vincent (who Yuffie had started calling Vinnie-boy). Vincent, in place of Zack (once again, Minerva rests their souls) was Cloud's best man. Presently, Vincent was trying to sleep the day away, reminiscent of his coffin-dwelling days. "Cloud, I'm back from the party store" called Tifa as she closed the front door (having just been getting provisions for the reception). "Great", came the response, " there's a massive crowd of customers outside waiting for service".

"What! You didn't serve them!" yelled Tifa, walking into the room, and promptly causing Vincent to fall off the sofa.

The angry crowd glared at them viscously, like a pack of ravenous Behemoths.

"Alright, come on"- the happy barmaid was cut off mid-sentence by the confusing yelling of the customers as they rushed in shouting obscenities such as "what the fuck time do you call this! The sign outside says 5am 'til 9pm". Of course seeing a disturbingly mad Cloud Strife wielding First Tsurugi (which I had previously called Buster Sword, rather foolishly), made them run for the hills as he chased them briefly, before returning to give his beloved a quick kiss. "Now that that's sorted out," Cloud began, "we need to decide who we're inviting to the wedding." Tifa thought about this for a second, then said:

"I think we should make it a point to invite as many friends as we can."

"Is that including Barret and Cid? Bearing in mind what the majority of their vocabularies are."

"That _is _a point," Tifa continued, "but, they're our friends."

"We can't have them swearing in front of the kids." Cloud pushed.

"Hypocrite!" Tifa retorted.

"What!"

"You heard me, and I heard you, yesterday"

They turned their backs on each other, in a grump.

Vincent, respecting his friends' wishes, stayed well out of this. For a second, it looked like the wedding was off. That is, until Cloud sighed and turned to his fiancé, "I'm sorry, Tifa… I was just so frustrated with Vincent."

"Don't try and pin this on me." The usually silent gunman declared.

Tifa was still stand offish, but seemed to accept Cloud's apology… at least for now.

"It's getting late," she pronounced "we should close the bar early and go to bed."

She grabbed Cloud's arm and led him off to their bedroom for what Vincent assumed was err… consummation, yeah, that'll do…

Day 3

Cloud came down early and in a mood. He was looking for some salve and (being half-asleep), took it and lay down… on Vincent! Their shocked screaming woke the house up. Vincent was shocked because Cloud lay on him and was covered in bruises (hence the salve) and Cloud was shocked because he had absent-mindedly lain on Vincent. "What does everyone in this house have against me sleeping?" Vincent yelled at Cloud.

Tifa came down and shout-whispered at them, "What do you think you're doing? The children have school in the morning and you're going to wake them up!"

The children in question at that point in time, decided to make an appearance, Denzel rubbing his eyes sleepily and Marlene clutching her favoured teddy bear. "Don't worry about _them_ waking us up, Tifa," Denzel started "Yeah! You already did that," yelled the more awakened girl, quite rudely.

"Well, as long as your up," Cloud started. "I mean, we _were_ going to ask you in the morning, but will you be our ring-bearer and bridesmaid at the wedding?"

"Okay, Cloud, but if you've made me and Marlene fail our exams tomorrow, you can forget it!"

With that, they went back upstairs to their rooms for some much-needed sleep.

Vincent too, lay down and went back to sleep, so Cloud and Tifa continued talking in hushed whispers.

"While we're up, we should do the invitation list." Cloud started.

"Okay, then. We could invite Barret and Cid as long as they promise not to swear in front of anyone; Johnny because I've not seen him in years; Vincent, Denzel and Marlene are semi-official, so we can't miss them out. Yuffie can take pictures (even though she annoys you); Nanaki is a good friend and so is Reeve; you could contact Zack and Aeris and see if their spirits could come to our wedding. And that pretty much sums it up, oh I almost forgot, we need to book someone to perform the ceremony." She said all this very fast and left Cloud flabbergasted as she went upstairs to bed (even though he agreed wholeheartedly, he would have liked to get a word in edge-ways). Presently, this left Cloud to his musings on how to accomplish what was asked of him, specifically to invite the deceased portion of their friends. He concluded he might be able to contact them from the church, and then promptly returned to his bed for some well-earned rest, (leaving Vincent to try and get some sleep, unlikely, as this was the first time in months that he'd avoided his nightmares).

Day 3… again

After last night's rambunctious events, everyone in the Strife-Lockheart household was overtired and irritable. Not in the least the two children who were angry with Cloud that they might end up held back in their respective years at school.

The only one well and truly rested up that morning was Vincent, who used to scattered glimpses of sleep. He did manage to avoid his nightmares and was considering the doubtful possibility that they had ended on a more permanent scale; _"maybe I've finally atoned for my sins," _he thought _**"I rather doubt it"**_ came the reply from his unwanted lodger.

As they sat around the kitchen table in the residential part of the building (except Cloud who was yet to immerge) they discussed what they would do today and complained about Cloud.

"We're going to be late" whined the children, fretful to leave on time. "At least have some toast" was the response from Tifa, who was in full-on Motherhood mode, while also talking to Vincent: "Perhaps we should have the Church renovated" was the stoic suggestion proposed by Vincent.

"That would be perfect, we've all got so many memories there" she replied.

"Then that's what we shall do," Vincent intoned in what passed for a cheerful voice by his standards.

"Hmm, I don't think we can; the wedding's tomorrow."

"Don't worry, Tifa, Reeve owes me some favours" Cloud put forward as he stepped off the stairs, not yet dressed and rubbing his sleep-filled eyes (and receiving baleful glares from the room's present occupants).

"Glad to see you're up" Tifa said sarcastically, ignoring his advice; and walking out of the room, brushing shoulders with him forcefully as she went. "Hey, Tifa; what was that for?"

Cloud wondered aloud, a small pot thrown at him from the top of the stairs for his effort.

"Yeah, Cloud, thanks; now we might flunk out of school" said Denzel, spitting venom, him and Marlene curving their path to the front door slightly, so as to also slam their shoulders into him, hard. Cloud looked to Vincent for forgiveness, received only a blank stare, left out the door. To make amends Cloud headed towards the Church, calling Reeve with his phone in one hand, steering Fenrir with the other.

"Reeve…Hi, it's Cloud"

"Hello Cloud, I hear you and Tifa are getting married tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's right… look, listen, I need you to do something for me." (Swerving to avoid pedestrians)

"I'm listening…"

"Do you think you could restore the Church in Sector 5?" (Dodging traffic at breakneck speeds)

"When do you need it done by?" asked Reeve.

"Tomorrow"

To which Reeve laughed loudly… "It's for the wedding", Cloud pointed out.

"We'll get it done, don't worry."

"Thank you, Reeve" ("Hey watch it, jerk" someone yelled from the pavement)

"What was that?" Reeve asked.

"Oh, nothing… nothing"

"You're calling from your bike, aren't you?"

"No…"

"Cloud…" "Yes?" "Is that a lie?" "Err, erm… err, you're breaking up! I'm going through a tunnel…" He hung up quickly and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Cloud turned his full attention back to the road, just as he arrived at the run down old Church in Sector 5. It was even worse for the wear since the last confrontation with Kadaj. The crumbling pillars, the bed of flowers, cracked stained glass windows…he remembered the first time he dropped in… literally. The smell of lilies, the first time he met Aeris, running from the Turks… good times.

He had come here to cross off another item from his mental to-do list. Already it was a buzz with the WRO's restoration committee; lifting the pillars on winches, replacing the missing segments of stained-glass, digging out the flowers…DIGGING OUT THE FLOWERS! Cloud snapped straight out of his musings. "Hey! Hey! Don't do that! Stop it! Stop it!" Cloud cried out, running over to save the flowers, only to be stopped by the palm of an outstretched hand. "I'm sorry, sir. But out orders come from Reeve Tuesti himself; restore this church to its former glory." "But that 'order' was my idea! That makes them _my_ orders. That means you have to do what I say… doesn't it?" The committee Sargent took some time to consider the logic of this statement, while Cloud hopped anxiously from foot to fit and they dug up more of the flowers.

"Caboose, Tucker" he called, getting the attention of the two men. With one hand gesture (the classic "decapitation" one) he had them stop what they were doing, and promptly sent them off to help somewhere that had more need of them. "Why don't you two idiots go and re-finish the the polish on the doors, after you've put the flowers back in their bed"

One of the two men (wearing a blue uniform) asked "Church, why do flowers have beds?"

To which the Sargent (probably called Church, Cloud realised), lost his temper and yelled hoarsely "DAMNIT, CABOOSE, JUST GO AND FIX THOSE DOORS, AND IF YOU'RE STILL HERE IN FIVE SECONDS, I'LL REALLY LOSE IT!"

As the other two walked away, Tucker, whose uniform was turquoise, turned to Caboose and said "Why'd you go and get him mad, you dumbass, everyone knows what a flower bed is"

Cloud thought to himself _"Caboose…Tucker…Church…why do those names sound so familiar? Well, what with all that ruckus, I'm not going to get a clear link to the Lifestream…Those names…I've definitely heard them somewhere before…"_

_Roses are Red, and Violets are Blue,_

_One day we'll cruise down Blood Gulch avenue…_

The next day… The Wedding Day

Tifa woke up early and left for the Church, (the WRO had worked late into the night to prepare for tomorrow's event).

It was still dark out. She crept stealthily to the wardrobe with a level of silence that would put Yuffie to shame and make any serious ninja proud. She took the wedding dress out of the wardrobe, and sneaked carefully into the kitchen. She laid the bag out on the table and carefully removed the dress to check that it was perfect. She had a drink of black coffee and, turning the light off, as she left, and stole away into the night. As an afterthought, she left a post-it note on the back of the door…

She remembered the feeling of love and forgiveness towards Cloud when she got the unexpected phone call from Reeve, telling her the Church would be ready for their wedding. She remembered how, later on, when Cloud realised the trouble Tifa had had finding a dress, he had sent her the perfect dress she'd always dreamed of, as though he had read her mind, taken the image out of her head and made it real.

Cloud awoke a few hours later and immediately noticed the absence of his beloved. He went downstairs and found Vincent struggling, one handed, to make breakfast. He smiled softly at the amusing sight and went to lend him a hand.

Half an hour before he left for the Church Tifa showed up to find him only just now reading the note she had left him:

_Cloud, I've gone to the Church, I don't believe in bad luck, but I put the dress there in the back room just to be safe, I'll bring the kids home from school and…_

Cloud never saw the end of the note as Marlene and Denzel rushed in, nearly knocking him over as they ran over to give him a hug. Tifa leaned on the doorway and smile at him, her red-ish brown eyes the colour of wine in bottles and glinting in the sunlight.

"So, how did you're exams go yesterday, you guys?"

"We both think we did really well" Denzel said.

"Sorry, we yelled at you" Marlene said, remembering her manners and how much the blond had done for her and Denzel. (Which, it seems Denzel had clearly forgotten).

"Oh, Cloud stop fidgeting" Tifa moaned while straightening Cloud's bow-tie and the flower in his lapel.

"But it's so uncomfortable" Cloud complained.

At this point, Vincent walked in. "Hurry, we'll be late" he said briefly, sternly.

Such was the ensuing chaos of the next five minutes that an outside observer within ear shot of the yelling, frantic screaming, tinkling or broken glass, and other sounds of a generally much stressed atmosphere may have come to the conclusion that there was a dispute of domestic violence occurring within. Thankfully, this was not the case and three very much panicked people rushed out, two clambering on to a large bike and speeding off towards the slums of old Midgar, whilst Vincent preferred to sprint off along the rooftops overhead.

Cloud and Tifa arrive just in time; Marlene rushing Tifa off to get changed and Vincent landing gracefully on the ground a mere few short seconds later. Denzel emerged from the entrance and hissed "you're late" at the two of them before showing them to the front, where they would be standing. (Cloud was glad to see that the flowers were all intact and exactly how he left them.)

Tifa (having taken the back exit) entered at the front, just as the music started playing. She was stunning, simply stunning. She wore a pure white dress with purple flowers above the veil, there were sky blue ribbons bound to the elbows and waist. Despite having ordered the dress and expecting it to look so beautiful, Cloud was quite taken aback and shocked into submission by the sheer glory of the garment. The bouquet she held was an assortment of lilies (for sweetness) and roses (for eternal love).

Such was the vast effect of this ensemble that Cloud forgot where he was.

"Cloud…Mr Strife…Cloud…Cloooooooouuuuuuud"

"Huh?"

"Cloud, do you take this woman…"

"Errrrrrm…huh…what… oh erm, yeah, I do" was Cloud's rather ungainly response. Despite this rather embarrassing debacle, the wedding went smoothly. You could say… it went off without a "hitch".

After the ceremony, everyone went back to the 7th Heaven for the reception party, there was cake (delicious despite Cid baking it) (it was later revealed to be his recipe after all), music (cheesy of course), fine wine (juice for the kids), and wedding presents. There was some rare (and rather suspiciously familiar) materia from Yuffie; the keys to a new, shiny, airship from Cid; a sacred crystal that would store happy memories of their time together from Nanaki (freshly excavated in Cosmo Canyon); there was a new kind of White Materia, capable of storing many objects from Reeve (courtesy of his science department), and many others.

Once the party was over, Cloud and Tifa said their goodbyes, boarded their new airship on Fenrir and Cloud whisked them off to one final surprise; a honeymoon in Costa Del Sol in the resort house Cloud had bought five years ago (in spite of his hatred for sand). The room had been redecorated accordingly. They sat on the lip of the low balcony, overlooking the sparkling ocean by moonlight; they tapped their champagne glasses together and relaxed…

So, there you have it … I'm sorry that the two year hiatus became a three-and-a-half year hiatus. I swear, I didn't intend for this to happen. I worked on it every day for about a week and then I just forgot about it, buried under a mountain of schoolwork.

I would also like to add a second disclaimer, as per the red vs. blue reference. The honour of owning this comic master piece belongs to the good people at Rooster Teeth.

I will close by quoting one bluefoxofwater1569 by saying review you worm babies you!


End file.
